Lee Carsley's fine strike on 61 minutes was enough to ensure Birmingham City did not lose any ground in their pursuit of the Championship leaders, Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Carsley chose a good time to score his first goal for the club after being released by Everton in the summer as Birmingham extended their unbeaten run to seven, but Plymouth Argyle were left aggrieved at not getting anything from the match.

The Birmingham manager, Alex McLeish, admitted his side laboured at times but was willing to forgive his players who blamed their poor first-half display on the floodlights. "Lee deserves that goal for all the endeavour he has put in since coming to us," he said. "The players complained about the floodlights and with four or five attempted clearances they ended up kicking the player instead."

Argyle began as brightly as the orange away shirts they chose to wear, claiming that the brighter colour makes it easier to spot each other under the dim Home Park floodlights than their normal green. Birmingham helped matters with a defence in disarray, and sharper shooting would have ensured Argyle greeted the interval ahead.

City improved in the second half and finally caused a moment of concern for Argyle when Nigel Quashie's 47th-minute corner dropped to Radhi Jaidi but the centre-back thumped his effort over the bar.

Birmingham continued to threaten and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie came close with a ferocious strike that crashed down off the bar, close to being over the goalline. Carsley was then allowed space to drill into the bottom corner from the edge of the area before Birmingham were left hanging on to their lead in a tense finale.

Taylor had to make a splendid late save to deny Simon Walton's long range strike before Paul Gallagher could have at least salvaged a point for Argyle on 80 minutes, but the striker turned Jamie Mackie's right-wing cross over the bar.